JOAN Leach MBE lived and breathed the town’s history.

She received the MBE accolade from the Prince of Wales four years ago for her work as secretary of the Gaskell Society and could often be found taking guided tours around the town’s streets.

And her son Martin, 41, said the author and historian wanted to make sure she was in the crowd as Knutsford celebrated Elizabeth Gaskell’s 200th birthday last Wednesday.

“In the morning of the celebrations she was a little bit hesitant about being in the wheelchair and she was getting worried about everything but she wanted to see her friends and be involved,” Martin said.

Joan was born in Knutsford on July 7, 1933.

She left the town to go to teacher training college where she met her late husband Christopher, who died in 2004. They had two children, Jonathan and Martin, but tragically Jonathan died in 1979 at the age of 11 after suffering an asthma attack.

Christopher wrote a novel, called ‘Letter to a Younger Son’ in 1981 that detailed his son’s death.

The family moved back to Knutsford in 1971 and Christopher and Joan both worked at Tabley House School, where Joan taught English to foreign students.

“She was always into history for as long as I could remember and that was the main love of her life,” Martin added.

“Jonathan’s death hit her hard and she never really got over that and she buried her head in things to keep her mind active.

“But she never kept any notes and it was all in her head somewhere and she could remember countless things.”

It was earlier this summer that Martin said her mum started to notice that something wasn’t quite right.

“The family trait has always been ‘I’ve got a few aches and pains, I won’t go to the doctors’ and I think my mum thought the same,” he added.

“She just thought that ‘well I’m in my 70s but there’s nothing wrong’ and she started to get a bit breathless but she was still cycling and just thought it was her age but it was a major shock to her.

“My gran lived until she was 95 and never had any problems and my dad was in his 70s and she thought she had another 10 to 15 years. She soon started to realise that from one day to the next she couldn’t do what she could do the day before.”

She was diagnosed with primary cancer of the lung and secondary brain cancer in July and she moved into Tabley House Nursing Home on September 2.

Martin said: “I was with her all day on Wednesday for the celebrations in town and she was there for the service but she didn’t spend too long there after it had finished.

“She went back to Tabley and said she was a little bit tired but no real problems and there was no indication of anything wrong.

“Apparently she was chatting away the night before, despite being a little bit breathless. Then I got the call at 6am on Thursday morning.

“She had a good night but woke up at 4.30am and buzzed the nurses who put the television on for her. They went to get her a cup of tea but when they came back to her she had passed away.

“The cancer was so near her heart that she couldn’t be operated on.”

A service of thanksgiving will take place at Brook St Unitarian Chapel on Wednesday, October 13 at 2pm. A private committal will take place at 1pm in Dunham Massey.